Which is the best way to remove stickers from your laptop?

People put stickers on almost everything and they call that personality, but today we’re going to talk about messed up laptops which need some personality removed. Removing stickers, old stickers which have been attached to plastic or aluminum surfaces for years, can be a pain in the butt and might fail if you don’t know how to do it. Here are some of the best sticker removal tutorials which will help you solve the problem fast and easy, keeping costs low as well…

BE CAREFUL ABOUTWHAT YOU’RE GOING TO REMOVE

Before removing any stickers, you have to be careful because there can be some OEM licensing stickers you still need. Removing all stickers from a machine could get you into trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing. Today, we’re going to teach you how to remove those CPU stickers, “Designed for Windows 7”, or any stickers applied by the user in a gorgeous attempt to show off…

KILLING FIRE WITH FIRE

The best way to remove stickers is by using heat. You must have a hairdryer at home or a heat gun in the garage. All you have to do is heat up the sticker to some extent making sure the adhesive gets warm and the sticker will peel off nice and easy, without any hustle. So make sure you heat up that damn sticker, but BE CAREFUL: do not burn the laptop surface. With the hairdryer this will be impossible, but if you use a heat gun, you might melt down some plastic if you heat the sticker too much or even start a fire.

THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE A STICKER IS … SLOWLY

Peeling: credit card or razor blade?

After you heat it up, try to peel it off slowly or use a credit card. If you do it fast you won’t be able to do it without tearing it apart. Remember: your goal is to get rid of that sticker, not to get into a sticker removal nightmare. Take your time and do it slowly. Bring on more heat if needed. Start peeling from one corner, slowly, and make sure you keep a 90-degree angle in the process, just like in the image below from wikiHow. Patience is the key to everything, not only to removing old stickers from laptops. Those of you who are braver can try to use a razor blade or something really sharp to remove stickers. Try that when your hands are steady.

HOW TO GET RID OF THE REMAINING GLUE

After you get rid of the sticker in one way or another, there will be a lot of glue remaining. Some stickers, if old, won’t peel off so well and you will need to try a chemical solution. Here are the most successful chemicals used for removing stickers in tutorials posted on the World Wide Web.

GooGone – One of the most famous citric-acid based cleaners in the United States. This substance won’t harm the aluminum or the plastic and will be able to remove the diehard glue. Pour GooGone on the surface, let it stay there for a few seconds and start to rub it with a microfiber cloth.

WD-40 – This spray is commonly used in the auto world but in this case it will help you remove anything covering your laptop surface. It won’t do any harm and you will be able to remove it with alcohol or windows cleaner. Just make sure you won’t pour WD-40 inside your laptop if there are any cracks around…

Alcohol – This is one of the most common chemicals in people’s houses. You have it on hand, it will help you get rid of the sticker residue. PS: perfume or deodorants contain alcohol, too…

Tea tree oil – I found this solution on stackexchange.com and it seems that people agree with it. If you happen to have some tea tree oil in your house, this might be the best solution for you. Just soak some cotton wool cloth (or other soft cloth) in the oil (so you don’t scratch the surface of your laptop) and wipe until no residue is left…

Lighter fuel – The kind of fuel which goes into Zippo lighters. I think it’s some kind of gasoline… How do you use this? Well, the idea comes from StickerGiant. First, you have to heat the stickers and peel them off with a credit card. Then, if any glue residue appears, put some Zippo lighter fuel on some microfiber cloth and clean the residue with circular motions. You can clean the gas after with some lens cleaner wipes.